


Expect

by lostinalaska



Series: The Alphabet, as it relates to Sherlock Holmes [5]
Category: BBC Sherlock, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 17:31:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4109179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lostinalaska/pseuds/lostinalaska
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mycroft Holmes expects things.  He certainly anticipated the appearance of someone such as Moriarty.  He had protocols in place for the emergence of a criminal with an intellect near or equal to his own, who manipulates criminals and schemes with the deft hand of a master.  These protocols were useless when Moriarty entered the picture.</p>
<p>They failed because the basic premise of the expectation was that the criminal would be Sherlock.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Expect

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own my own ideas and words, but not the concept, premise upon which this story is based, or the characters therein. They belong to the BBC and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
> 
> A/N: … I haven’t written anything in four years. Um. Okay. Wow.
> 
> Anyhow, I chose the word Expect for the title, and was going to write about Sherlock asking John about the effects of pregnancy on human behavior. It was going to be mostly fluff and entertaining. Then my computer died, and I lost the beginning of that, and I didn’t bother trying to rewrite it. And then I was walking to work about three months ago, and I was thinking about Sherlock, and I was wondering why Mycroft was so incredibly unprepared for Moriarty. And then… this.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Mycroft Holmes expects things. He expects people to be fallible, plans to go awry, and the worst to be, while not inevitable, at least a distinct possibility.

Because he expects, he can plan. Because he expects, he is rarely surprised, and he is certainly never without a seamlessly implemented new course of action. Any deviation from the original plan flows smoothly into the backup plan, and the next deviation slides easily into another backup unique to that original backup plan, and so on until all of the possibilities have been accounted for. In his more fanciful moments, Mycroft imagines a tree of possibilities, with branches that spread and overlap and which can be followed from the roots to any given leaf in the canopy. (In his less fanciful moments, it is a utilitarian planning chart that branches off into infinity.)

Because Mycroft Holmes expects things, he anticipated the appearance of someone such as Moriarty. He had protocols in place for the emergence of a criminal with an intellect near or equal to his own, who manipulates criminals and schemes with the deft hand of a master. These protocols were useless when Moriarty entered the picture. This is not, as Mycroft reminds himself when he feels an unexpected twinge of guilt, because he had not expected and planned for exactly this kind of criminal. 

They failed because the basic premise of the expectation was that the criminal would be Sherlock.

In the aftermath of Moriarty’s destruction, Mycroft rethinks his expectations.

Mycroft now expects Sherlock to remain focused on solving crime and other interesting puzzles, with a moderate possibility of a drug relapse.

Mycroft now expects to never have to pit his own intellect against his younger brother for queen and country.

Mycroft now expects John Watson, full stop.

Mycroft Holmes expects things. And because he expects, he can plan. And so, now, Mycroft begins to craft the sapling that will grow into the tree of possibilities that make up his brother’s life.


End file.
